Wordfence, a WordPress security company, issued an advisory after the Russian attack on Ukraine, advising people to be on the lookout for an increase in hacking activity and providing tips on how to avoid becoming a victim of state-sponsored cyber attacks.
In addition, the US Government Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently updated their Shield’s Up web page, which now includes more information about possible cyberattacks originating in Russia.
Search Visibility is Protected by Website Security
Many SEOs do not consider website security to be a ranking factor. Cyberattacks, on the other hand, can have a significant impact on search visibility and the ability to display web pages to site visitors.
Because hacking and other security events can harm search visibility, website security should ideally be an important part of SEO.
Wordfence Recommends Increased Vigilance
State-sponsored cyberattacks are common, particularly against websites related to government and infrastructure.
However, at this time, the threat may spread to commercial websites. Wordfence advised all website owners to be more cautious.
While Wordfence admitted that it has not yet seen an increase in state-sponsored hacking events, it still advises publishers to be more vigilant in the coming hours and days.
The founder of Wordfence advised:
“If you run a business, I’d like to advise you to enter a higher state of vigilance.”
The Wordfence alert recommended the following steps for defending against cyber attacks:
- Learn about phishing and social engineering attacks.
- Multi-factor authentication should be enabled.
- WordPress plugin developers should be extra cautious about being hacked and used to spread exploits to all of their clients’ sites.
- Keep an eye on your logs for any suspicious hacking activity.
- Keep an eye out for new (and potentially malicious) files on your site.
Read 20 of The Best Penetration Testing Tools to Get Ahead of Cyber Attacks in 2022.
Cybersecurity Guidance
The CISA of the United States Government also released tips and a list of resources and tools to assist organizations in preparing for cyber intrusions and other attacks.
CISA recommended the following preventative measures:
Fix any software flaws that have been discovered.
Multi-factor authentication should be implemented (MFA)
Replace any software products that have reached the end of their useful life and are no longer receiving software updates.
Any system or product that relies on known/default/unchangeable passwords should be replaced.
To participate in CISA’s Cyber Hygiene Vulnerability Scanning (vulnerability@cisa.dhs.gov), send an email to vulnerability@cisa.dhs.gov.
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Cybersecurity Resources for Free
The CISA website provided a comprehensive list of free tools for preventing and mitigating cyber attacks.
Here is a partial list of free tools and services:
- Cisco Immunet Antivirus for Microsoft Windows
- Microsoft Application Guard is a feature of Microsoft Defender.
- Cloudflare’s unmetered distributed denial-of-service protection is available for free.
- Cloudflare is a free service. Certificate for the Secure Sockets Layer Protocol (SSL)
- Quad9 for Android – Protects you from malicious and virus-infected websites.
- Quad9 – Blocks malware and virus-infected websites from being accessed by computers and mobile devices.
- “Project Shield is a free service that protects news, human rights, and election monitoring sites from DDoS attacks,” says the website.
- Vane2 is a free security scanner for WordPress.
Consider Adding to Your Security
At virtually any time of day or night, all websites are vulnerable to a variety of attacks.
Recent events in Ukraine, on the other hand, have increased the likelihood of Russian state-sponsored hacking attempts.
Publishers on WordPress should use a trusted WordPress security plugin like Wordfence, as well as the above-mentioned tips and free tools, to improve security.
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